V

V is a new character introduced in Devil May Cry 5. He is the game's third playable character.

Appearance
V is a tall, slender young man with pale skin and green eyes. He has chin-length, natural white hair with long bangs, but his pact with his demons magical turns his hair jet-black and covers his entire upper body in black tattoos.

V wears a long, open sleeveless leather coat with the sides tied together by strings and a sewn-in corset-like vest. He also wears black pants with a silver chain made up heads with faces that resembles the faces on Red Orb Crystals attached to his belt on the right and fingerless glove on his right hand. V sports many accessories, including a tooth pendant around his neck, sliver ring on his left middle finger, and plain leather bracelet and a spiked bracelet on his left wrist. Unlike most characters in the series, V wears black sandals instead boots. V carries a sliver cane, seemingly due to having a limp, and a brown, gold-embroidered book with a large "V" insignia in the cover.

Personality
Currently what little is known about his personality, V is very fond poetry, often recites it when speaking to people to the point Griffon calls him "Shakespeare", and has a dry sense of humor.

Story
Book and cane in hand, this slender man appears covered in impressive tattoos. Before chaos fell upon Red Grave City, he sought out Dante through the information broker J.D. Morrison and tasked him to subdue a certain demon. V lacks the power to fight himself, instead relying on three demon familiars to take the offensive in battle.

V is also seeking Sparda's sword from Dante for unknown reasons and he even attempts to kill Dante saying that he should never had existed.

Powers
Unlike Dante and Nero, V has very little demonic power and seemingly a normal human, instead his abilities comes from his pact with his three demons and is capable of casting a huge variety of magic spells. One spell seems to involves creating many duplicates of his cane to attack many enemies at once.

Familiars
V has the ability to summon demons to fight on his behalf. When not call upon, the demons are embodies in V's tattoos and his hair, turning it from white to black. When they are summon, the corresponding tattoo to each demon will disappear.

Shadow: This demon familiar usually takes the form of a quadruped beast, only to shapeshift into blades, needles, and all manner of nasty weapons to act as vanguard. Through Shadow, V can also move at faster speeds than normal. V can also ride on Shadow as form of transportion.

Griffon: This avian monstrosity can always be found somewhere around V, usually flapping its beak with some inappropriate jab. Griffon brings the thunder with electrified long-range attacks, or can give V a lift if close by. Griffon is the only one that knows human language and acts as the interpreter for Shadow and Nightmare so others can understand them.

Nightmare: V can unleash his full power to call upon this gargantuan demon. When summoned, Nightmare may crash onto the battlefield like a meteorite, or burst through parts of the environment to heed the call. Its sluggish movements belie unsurpassable strength and nigh-invulnerability. Wherever Nightmare appears, its massive fists or brutal laser beams are the last thing enemies ever see.

Gameplay
In terms of combat, V uses his cane and book with the letter "V" on it as weapons. He's also capable of summoning different types of demons that will aid him in the battle and casting a huge variation of spells. Due to his unique gameplay style, V described to be a "tricky" and strategic character to use in battle. When playing as V, maintaining a distance is key while the demons are fighting and as long V doesn't take damage, the battle can continue. When quickly evading or attempting to ride on Shadow or fly with Griffon, V must have his familiars close to him or call them back to his position.

V's demons can be strengthen and learn new abilities over the course of the game. However, V's familiars cannot kill other demons and V must land the finishing blow. When enemies demon are close to death, they will staggered and turn violet, signalling for V to finished them off with his cane.

Unless directed by V, Griffon and Shadow can fight automatically, but having them fight automatically will use up V's D.T gauge. When Nightmare, summoning him consumes the D.T. gauge and it also decreases when Nightmare attacks. Due to Nightmare's slow movement, Nightmare essentially cannot transverse the ground very well and isn't ideal to use when surrounded by enemies. Nightmare can be directly controlled by V when he climbs on his shoulder and pierced him with his cane. As along Nightmare is controlled by V, V can kill enemies off using Nightmare.

The familiars can take damage and will revert to their core state after taking too much. In their core state, they cannot attack and cannot be summon again for a certain amount of time. If Griffon and Shadow are in their state, summoning Nightmare is a quick way to revive them. Another way to quickly revive the demons from their core states if for V to stand to close to them, the closer V is the faster the demons can revive.

In order to fill V's D.T. gauge, V has to read his book and the closer V is to his opponents, the faster the gauge will fill.

Etymology
The letter "V" is the Roman numeral for the number "5", referencing V's appearance and importance in the fifth installment of the ''Devil May Cry series, Devil May Cry 5.

Trivia

 * Due to his likeness, many fans made the comparison between V and actor Adam Driver, particularly Driver's role as Kylo Ren from the Star Wars franchise. However, the character of V was being developed before Star Wars: The Force Awakens had been released.
 * Some sentences said by V are quoted directly from William Blake poems, such as "He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence." and "I curse my stars in bitter grief and woe, that made my love so high and me so low.". Additionally, one of Nico's tattoos also quotes a William Blake poem titled "Eternity".
 * Itsuno stated in a Famitsu interview that V caused the most trouble when developing Devil May Cry 5. At the New York Comic-Con 2018, he also stated that V was actually his favorite character.
 * V's playstyle and how he fights was thought out before any other detail of the character.